We had brainstormed, planned and stared at maps for many months, We wanted to reach four remote tundra wildfires scars in mid West Greenland to study their impacts on soils, vegetation, carbon and micro-climate.

Getting there was the first challenge. It took us several very bumpy boat rides and some days of hiking with heavy packs. We camped at our research sites in tents, with lots of equipment, freeze-dried food and an InReach. When the boat threatened to get stuck in the river, we carried it across the rapids. Luckily, but coincidentally, most of the fires had started along the popular and epic Arctic Circle Trail, so we could follow a well established path and sometimes sleep in one of the huts. This was for sure my most adventurous campaign ever!

The research was of course a challenge in itself. As ecologists, when we want to know the impact of a process, we often rely on two options: (1) we make it happen in a controlled set up where everything is accounted for and measured, so we can be sure that all resulting changes are due to the process of interest. Or (2), we gather sufficient sites and similarly account for and measure all other potential variables of interest, so that we can at least statistically say how likely it is that the resulting changes are due to chance. But fires are quite unethical to just ‘make’ ourselves, and there aren’t so many of then in Greenland. And then they tend to happen and spread in certain ways due to a reason, for example the pre-existing vegetation or dry patches in the landscape. We needed four very smart brains to come up with a workable measurement design and even then it is unlikely to be ‘perfect’.

But for now, let’s not worry about the science, and enjoy the scenery!